Letter: Soaring national debt must be addressed now

I remember a Barack Obama speech before his first election convincing everyone that if elected he would take responsibility and make changes. Every observation of his was so simple.

“The government cannot spend more than it takes in” is one statement in particular. Well, when he was elected we had a national debt of $10.6 trillion; it is now $16.7 trillion and will be over $20 trillion after his second term. Nice job. “Change you can believe in” is the motto I remember.

The government would never shut down if it were run properly. Since a trillion has 12 zeros and nobody can really relate to it, let’s make it easier and take eight zeros away from the numbers and refer to the government as a friend. Your friend owes $170,000 and has already planned on spending $35,500 this year while hoping to take in only $24,500. In two years he will be $200,000 in debt. What advice do you have? Your friend is blaming others.